In our previous blog, we mentioned that the Actioner team is now focusing on difficulties faced by developers, and we desire to help them improve their overall productivity during the software development lifecycle.
We have built recently built GitLab Slack integration for managing merge requests in Slack , and we're thrilled to announce it. 🥳 We hope you'll find it helpful cause we love it!
- Overview: GitLab App for Slack
- How to get started
GitLab App for Slack
GitLab Slack integration for MR management lets DevOps teams collaborate on MRs without leaving Slack. Actioner brings developers, code changes, and conversations together through ephemeral Slack channels. This can help streamline the MR review process and make it easier for team members to collaborate and provide feedback on code changes.
Use cases
For the GitLab MR management app, we have created 2 use cases to demonstrate how it looks when applied in real life. You’ll get a better understanding of what the app is capable of and how it can streamline and improve your MR review workflow.
GitLab notifications in Slack
Whenever an MR is opened in GitLab, Actioner creates a channel dedicated to the MR. It’s named after the MR and the repo it belongs to. Only assignees and reviewers in the merge request are automatically invited to this channel so that distractions can be avoided.
In the channel dedicated to the MR, all team members can see details of the MR immediately after it is created. Actioner also sends a message to the channel with test results on the thread. The notifications also consist of smart action buttons that allow reviewers to approve and the assignee to merge MR in Slack.
When you add an 📌 emoji to a message in the MR channel, Actioner turns that Slack message into an MR comment on GitLab.
Likewise, when there is a new MR comment in GitLab, Actioner sends that comment as a Slack message to the MR channel.
GitLab comments and Slack conversations are synced in the MR channel, allowing team members to track and access all comments related to their open MRs in one place, improving communication and collaboration within the team.
Slack channel dedicated to GitLab commits
Actioner keeps your team in the loop by setting up a dedicated Slack channel to receive updates from GitLab. Every time an MR is merged into the main branch, a message is automatically posted in the channel with a link to view the code changes.
Having a broadcast channel allows everyone to stay informed about deployments and updates every time there is a new release. Furthermore, it helps your engineers keep up with the latest developments on their branches.
How to get started
- Go to Actioner app directory and install GitLab merge request management.
- Connect to GitLab and Slack and complete GitLab admin connection via OAuth2.
- Click Authorize Actioner. You’ll be redirected to Actioner upon successful authorization.
- Connect to Slack and continue with selecting your Slack workspace.
- Proceed to app setup:
1. First, run Subscribe to GitLab MR events workflow. This will create a webhook for the GitLab repositories you selected and you’ll be subscribed to merge request events.
2. Second, run Set MR update channel workflow. This will create a new Slack channel named after the prefix you select. Actioner will send a message to this channel when a new commit is pushed to the main branch. Also, anyone who joins this channel will receive an onboarding message from Actioner. - When you finish the setup, your app will be ready to use in Slack. You will start getting GitLab Slack notifications in channels you've selected.
Learn how to customize this app and more ➡️
Wrapping up
So that's how Actioner's GitLab Slack integration helps you to manage MRs without leaving Slack.
Starting today, you can minimize conflicts within your engineering team and keep them running smoothly with Actioner-powered Slack channels.
We have also built other solutions for DevOps teams. Check them out in App directory ➡️
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